In Episode 2 of Series 3 of The Rights Track we talk to Dr Alison
Gardner, from the University of Nottingham who leads the Rights
Lab’s ‘Slavery-Free Communities’ initiative. Through work with
statutory, business and voluntary-sector partners, Alison’s
research is developing policy and community-centred responses to
modern slavery. The research aims to make the city of
Nottingham a slavery free city by 2030.

0.00-3.21

Alison explains how she and the Rights Lab team are working to
define and explain what a slavery free community looks like

Much attention on the national picture, but to date very little
has been done to understand what slavery looks like at a local
level - this is a gap in policy because most work to prevent it
takes place locally

Slavery free communities project is all about responding to the
problem at a local level using available resources and better
serving people to respond to and then prevent modern slavery

3.21-10.18

Discussion on how people may be ‘rescued’ from slavery but then
go back into it because of a lack of support/services

Explanation of different stakeholders and help available and
the challenges around co-ordination of services

Alison mentions
detailed reports produced by Her Majesty’s Constabulary on
police response to modern slavery. There are questions as to
whether police are best placed to take a lead and the need on
tackling modern slavery for more community and voluntary sector
engagement

The
National Referral Mechanism is run by the Salvation Army and
works to identify victims of trafficking or slavery - Alison points
out that other NGOs working with the Salvation Army team to be
national or regional rather than local

Potential role of the community at large to help stop and
prevent the problem. Alison mentions the Clewer Initiative by the
Church of England which is trying to use faith communities to try
to detect and eradicate slavery

10.18-18.10

How the research is working to make Nottingham a slavery-free
city - Alison outlines the basic tenets for this as outlined by
slavery expert Kevin Bales in his book,
The Slave Next Door

Example of how front line staff in a business might support the
detection and eradication of slavery households e.g meter readers
who go into homes

Alison explains that she and colleagues are also interested to
know how you make an economy slavery free. This goes beyond
existing supply chain legislation outlined in
Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act and to think of their role
as corporate citizens

Alison explains how the project is working with the Red Cross
to look at better survivor support

Discussion around the need to strengthen the sharing of
intelligence between agencies and how banks and hospitals might
help.

About the Podcast

The Rights Track podcast gets the hard facts about the human rights challenges facing the world today and aims to get our thinking about human rights on the right track. The podcast is hosted by Professor Todd Landman, a human rights scholar and champion for the advancement of human rights understanding. In Series 1, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, Todd interviews leading analysts at the forefront of the latest critical thinking on human rights. Each episode is an insightful, compelling and rigorous interview with academics engaged in systematic human rights research. In Series 2, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, The Rights Track turns its attention to human rights advocates and practitioners involved in the struggle for human rights to learn more about their work and the ways in which academic research is helping them. Series 3 sees our podcast joining the fight to end modern day slavery by 2030. In partnership with the University of Nottingham's Right's Lab research project, we talk with researchers who are providing hard evidence about the scale of the problem and by recommending strategies that can help consign slavery to the history books. Although our interviews focus on often complex research, they have been developed with a much wider audience in mind and we want them to be accessible to anyone with an interest in human rights.